GeForce 9600 GT Graphics Card Review

Let’s start by taking a look at some games in DirectX 9 mode. For most buyers, this will be how they’ll use these $200-or-less graphics cards. Though they are DX10 capable, most games in DX10, particularly future games, don’t run quickly enough for a really good experience. You get better overall visuals running in DX9 mode at a higher resolution, most of the time.

Scores are pretty close in Supreme Commander, with the 9600 GT pulling ahead as you crank up the resolution. Anti-aliasing performance has been one area where Nvidia’s latest GPU architecture outclasses ATI’s, and this shows up with a substantial lead when you enable AA. Both cards run the game at roughly 30 frames per second (fps) or better even at 1920×1200 with 4xAA enabled, which is all you need for smooth gameplay in a real-time strategy game.

Nvidia outperforms ATI in this one. Though the card we’re testing is about 25%-30% more expensive than the 256MB Radeon HD 3850, they’re running the game anywhere from 50% to more than twice as fast. At 1920×1200 with AA and AF enabled, we can chalk up some of the performance differential to the 512MB graphics memory vs. the 256MB on the ATI card.

In Crysis, running the DX9 version, the performance difference is around 25%–30% in favor of the EVGA overclocked 9600 GT card. Enable AA and the Nvidia card is more than three times as fast. We can credit this in part to the increased memory on the 9600 GT, but also to ATI’s poor driver optimization for Crysis (recent driver optimizations improved DX10 performance in the game, but not DX9 performance)

In DirectX 9 mode, both cards are able to run the game at 1920×1200 with 4x anti-aliasing applied at speeds fast enough for nice smooth gameplay. The Nvidia card definitely runs the game faster, especially at a high resolution. Some of that is due to the higher performance of the 9600 GT, and some is due to our test card having more memory than our 256MB Radeon HD 3850. Continued…

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